Unix admin pleads guilty to planting logic bomb

A former Unix system administrator at a US prescription management firm has pleaded guilty in a US court to attempting to sabotage critical data on more than 70 servers, including individual prescription drug data.

Jaikumar Vijayan
September 24, 2007

Share

Twitter

Facebook

LinkedIn

Google Plus

A former Unix system administrator at a US prescription management firm has pleaded guilty in a US court to attempting to sabotage critical data on more than 70 servers, including individual prescription drug data.

Yung-Hsun Lin, also known as Andy Lin, is scheduled to be sentenced on 8 January. He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years and a fine of $250,000 (£123,000).

Lin was one of several systems administrators at Medco who feared they would be made redundant when their company was spun off from drug maker Merck in 2003, according to a statement released by federal law enforcement authorities. Apparently angered by the prospect of losing his job, on 2 October 2003 Lin created a "logic bomb" by modifying existing computer code and inserting new code into Medco's servers.

The bomb was originally set to go off on 23 April 2004, on Lin's birthday. When it failed to deploy because of a programming error, Lin reset the logic bomb to deploy on 23 April 2005, despite the fact that he had not been laid off as feared. The bomb was discovered and neutralised in early January 2005, after a Medco computer systems administrator investigating a system error came across it.

Had it gone off as scheduled, the malicious code would have wiped out data stored on 70 servers. Among the databases that would have been affected was a critical one that maintained patient specific drug interaction information that pharmacists use to determine whether conflicts exist among an individual's prescribed drugs. Also affected would have been information on clinical analyses, rebate applications, billing, new prescription requests from doctors, coverage determination applications and employee payroll data.

During a plea hearing at the US District Court in Newark, Lin pleaded guilty to one count of transmitting computer code with the intent of causing damage in excess of $5,000 (£2,500).

The case is one of the most egregious examples yet of attempted computer sabotage by an insider, assistant attorney Erez Liebermann told Computerworld. Unlike most malicious logic bombs, which are designed to disrupt operations or inflict financial damage, Lin's malicious code could have affected "life and limb," Liebermann said.

The incident highlights again the danger posed to companies by disgruntled employees seeking revenge for some perceived harm against them, Liebermann said. "Some event triggers unhappiness on the part of the employee, which is why we have counselled companies to be extra vigilant about hiring and firing staff" and when handing out incentives and bonuses, he said.

Liebermann pointed to the case of Roger Duronio, a systems administrator at UBS PaineWebber. In July 2006, Duronio was found guilty of planting a logic bomb that affected around 1,000 of PaineWebber's computers around the US, costing the company more than $3m (£1.5m) in damages. Duronio, who was sentenced to more than eight years in prison, planted the bomb because he was disgruntled with his pay and bonuses.

Tracking down such individuals can be challenging because of the techniques they use to hide their tracks, Liebermann said. In both the Duronio incident and in Lin's case, for instance, the malicious code was designed to wipe itself out of existence after the attack had been deployed, he said.